Ayatollah Khomeini (movement)
ANAS P. A
A.M.U ALIGAHR –INDIA
Ayatollah Khomeini (movement)
Introduction
Iran was flourished a number famous personalities in different felids jest like religious, politics and other
part of sciences. Among them Ayatollah Khomeini was most one religious and political leader, who in
1979 made Iran the world's first Islamic republic. At the outset of the 20th century, Iran was faced a
number of political and social challenges and struggles on the behalf of the religious and secular peoples.
The Rise of the Reza shah Pahlavi had began a new era of Iranian history. His Western biased
reformations make unhappy among the religious-Ulama peoples. Most Iranians had a deep respect for
the Shi'a clergy or Ulema, and tended to be religious, traditional, and alienated from the process of
Westernization pursued by the Shah. In this critical situation Ayatollah Khomeini came into screen.
Khomeini found the arena of leadership open following the deaths of Ayatollah Sayyed Husayn Borujerdi
(1961), the leading, although quiescent, Shi'ah religious leader; and Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem
Kashani (1962), an activist cleric. Khomeini denounced both the Shah and the western countries. As a
result he exiled. But he continued his protest against the shah’s regime. Although thousands of
kilometers away from Iran in Paris, Khomeini set the course of the revolution, urging Iranians not to
compromise and ordering work stoppages against the regime. At last in 1979 his movement had won and
shah overthrown from his power. He became the supreme leader of the Islamic republic of Iran. After his
10 years leadership of the Islamic republic of Iran, on June 3, 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini’s historical life
had ended.
Short biography of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Rouhollah Mousavi Khomeini was born on 24 September 1902 (20 Jamadi al-Akhir 1320), in the small
town of Khomein, the southwest of Qom, the son of Seyed Moustafa. He was the child of a family with a
long tradition of religious scholarship. His ancestors, reached into the descendants of Imam Mousa alKazim, the seventh Imam of the Ahl al-Bayt. Ruhollah began to study the Qur'an and
elementary Persian at the age of six. The following year, he began to attend a local school, where he
learned religion, and other traditional subjects. ). After it he go to the city of Arak in order for him to
benefit from the more ample educational resources available there. In 1923, Khomeini arrived in Qom and
devoted himself to completing the preliminary stage of madreseh education.
Khomeini did not engage in any political activities during the 1930's. He believed that the leadership of
political activities should be in the hands of the foremost religious scholars, and he was therefore obliged
to accept the decision of Ayatollah Haeri to remain relatively passive toward the measures taken by Reza
Shah against the traditions and culture of Islam in Iran. In 1955, a nationwide campaign against the Baha'i
sect was launched, for which the Khomeini sought to recruit Ayatollah Boroujerdi's support, but he had
little success.
Rise of an active leader
The emphases of the Ayatollah Khomeini's activity began to change with the death of Ayatollah Boroujerdi
on March 31, 1961, for he now emerged as one of the successors to Boroujerdi's position of leadership.
This emergence was signaled by the publication of some of his writings on fiqh, most importantly the
basic handbook of religious practice entitled, like others of its genre, Tozih al-Masael. He was soon
accepted as Marja-e Taqlid by a large number of Iranian Shi'is.
In January 1963, the Shah announced the "White Revolution", a six-point programme of reform calling
for land reform, nationalization of the forests, the sale of state-owned enterprises to private interests,
electoral changes to enfranchise women and allow non-Muslims to hold office, profit-sharing in industry,
and a literacy campaign in the nation's schools. Some of these initiatives were regarded as dangerous,
Westernizing trends by traditionalists, especially by the powerful and privileged Shi'a ulama. On 22
January 1963 Khomeini issued a strongly worded declaration denouncing the Shah and his plans.
Khomeini continued his denunciation of the Shah's programmes, issuing a manifesto that bore the
signatures of eight other senior Iranian Shia religious scholars. As a result, Khomeini was arrested and
held in prison. Khomeini was held in prison until April 1964. After delivering another inflammatory speech
in the fall of 1964, Khomeini was arrested and deported to Turkey. But he return from turkey and took up
residence in Najaf, Iraq in September 1965. He remained there for 13 years.
Frameworks of Islamic Revolution Republic.
During his years in exile, Khomeini developed a theory of what a state founded on Islamic principles and
led by the clergy would look like, called Velayat-e faqeeh. He taught his theory at a local Islamic school,
mostly to other Iranians. He also began making videotapes of his sermons, which were smuggled into and
sold in Iranian bazaars. Through these methods, Khomeini became the accepted leader of the Iranian
opposition to the government of the Shah. The opposition was, indeed, picking up steam.
In 1975, crowds gathered for three days at a religious school in Qom and could only be moved by military
force. In response, Khomeini released a jubilant statement in support of the protestors.More protests
occurred in 1978 in Khomeini's defense, and were again put down violently by Iranian government forces.
In the wake of these protests, the Shah felt that Khomeini's exile in Iraq was too nearby for comfort. Soon
thereafter, Khomeini was surrounded by Iraqi soldiers and given a choice: either stay in Iraq and abandon
all political activity, or leave the country.He chose the latter. On October 3, Khomeini moved to Paris. The
year 1979, mere months after his move to Paris Students, the middle-class, self-employed businessmen,
and the military all took to the street in protest. On January 3, 1979, Shapour Bakhtiyar was appointed as
a prime minister by shah. And on January 16, Shah left Iran.
Establishment of new government
Two weeks later, on Thursday, 1 February 1979, Khomeini returned in triumph to Iran. On February 10,
Ayatollah Khomeini ordered that the curfew should be defied. The next day the Supreme Military Council
withdrew its support from Bakhtiyar, and on February 12, 1979, following the sporadic street gunfight all
organs of the regime, political, administrative, and military, finally collapsed. The revolution had
triumphed.
On March 30 and 31, a nationwide referendum resulted in a massive vote in favor of the establishment of
an Islamic Republic. Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed the next day, April 1, 1979, as the "first day of God's
government". He obtained the title of "Imam" (highest religious rank in Shia). With the establishment of
Islamic Republic of Iran he became Supreme Leader (Vali-e Faqeeh). On February 4, 1980, Abolhassan
Banisadr was elected as the first president of Iran.
The Constitution framework
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was adopted by referendum on October 24, 1979, and
went into force on December 3 of that year, replacing the Constitution of 1906. It was amended on July
28, 1989. The constitution has been called a "hybrid" of "theocratic and democratic elements". While
articles One and Two vest sovereignty in God, article six "mandates popular elections for the presidency
and the Majlis, or parliament. However all democratic procedures and rights are subordinate to
the Guardian Council and the Supreme Leader, whose powers are spelled out in constitution.
Relationship with other Islamic nations
Khomeini made efforts to establish unity among Ummah. He intended to reconstruct Muslim unity and
solidarity, so he declared the birth week of Prophet of Islam as the Unity Week. Then he declared the last
Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan as the International Day of Quds in 1979.Shortly before he died
the famous scholar Abul Ala Maududi paid Khomeini the compliment of saying he wished he had
accomplished what Khomeini had, and that he would have like to have been able to visit Iran to see the
revolution for himself.
This pan-Islamism did not extend to the most sunni nations. Under his leadership the Iranian government
cut relation with Saudi Arabia. Khomeini declared that Iran may one day start good diplomatic relation with
the US or Iraq but never with Saudi Arabia. Iran did not re-establish diplomatic relation with Saudi Arabia
until March 1991, after Khomeini's death.
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Persian Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and
Iraq lasting from September 1980 to August 1988.Saddam Hossein, was eager to take advantage of
Iran's weakened military and (what he assumed was) revolutionary chaos, and in particular to occupy
Iran's adjacent oil-rich province of Khuzestan and undermine attempts by Iranian Islamic revolutionaries
to incite the Shi'a majority of his country.
With what many believe was the encouragement of the United States, Saudi Arabia and other countries,
Iraq soon launched a full scale invasion of Iran, starting what would become the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq
War (September 1980 - August 1988). A combination of fierce patriot resistance by Iranians and military
incompetence by Iraqi forces soon stalled the Iraqi advance and by early 1982 Iran regained almost all
the territory lost to the invasion. The invasion rallied Iranians behind the new regime, enhancing Imam
Khomeini's stature and allowed him to consolidate and stabilize his leadership. As the costs of the eightyear war mounted, Imam Khomeini, in his words, "drank the cup of poison" and accepted a truce
mediated by the United Nations. As the war ended, the struggles among the clergy resumed and Imam
Khomeini’s health began to decline.
Khomeini's Political Philosophy
The foundations of Ayatollah Roholla Khomeini's political philosophy are given in the book Hukumat e
Islami: Velayat e Faqih. The essentials may be summarized as follows:
1) Islam is a political religion and philosophy of governance by its nature and covers all aspects of
life.
2) Those who falsely claim that Islam is only relevant to matters of faith do so because they are
servants of imperialists.
3) If Muslim states employed Islamic governance than they would become more powerful than their
rivals, and that is why imperialists and their servants oppose rule by Islamic law.
4) Sharia, as interpreted by a great scholar, must be the basis of governance, and Khomeini is
the marj al taqlid (model worthy of emulation) an absolute leader who rules by fiat and is the
stand-in for the hidden 12th Imam.
5) Democracy is contrary to Islamic law, which is the rule of God. This principle was hidden following
for a brief period just before the triumph of the revolution, when Khomeini promised democratic
government
Teacher’s note points
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Historical study of 19th &20th century Iran
Politics of Iran
Role of ulama in Iran & pahlavids
Emergence of Khomeini
Political scenario of Iran on Khomeini involved
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
Struggle for Islamization in politics
Khomeini and his move
Islamic revolution of Iran
Nature of Islamic Iran
Khomeini and Islamic Iran
Relation of Iran with other countries
Khomeini and his factures
Impact of Khomeini on Muslim world
Iran in the recent polities
A.M.U ALIGAHR –INDIA
Ayatollah Khomeini (movement)
Introduction
Iran was flourished a number famous personalities in different felids jest like religious, politics and other
part of sciences. Among them Ayatollah Khomeini was most one religious and political leader, who in
1979 made Iran the world's first Islamic republic. At the outset of the 20th century, Iran was faced a
number of political and social challenges and struggles on the behalf of the religious and secular peoples.
The Rise of the Reza shah Pahlavi had began a new era of Iranian history. His Western biased
reformations make unhappy among the religious-Ulama peoples. Most Iranians had a deep respect for
the Shi'a clergy or Ulema, and tended to be religious, traditional, and alienated from the process of
Westernization pursued by the Shah. In this critical situation Ayatollah Khomeini came into screen.
Khomeini found the arena of leadership open following the deaths of Ayatollah Sayyed Husayn Borujerdi
(1961), the leading, although quiescent, Shi'ah religious leader; and Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem
Kashani (1962), an activist cleric. Khomeini denounced both the Shah and the western countries. As a
result he exiled. But he continued his protest against the shah’s regime. Although thousands of
kilometers away from Iran in Paris, Khomeini set the course of the revolution, urging Iranians not to
compromise and ordering work stoppages against the regime. At last in 1979 his movement had won and
shah overthrown from his power. He became the supreme leader of the Islamic republic of Iran. After his
10 years leadership of the Islamic republic of Iran, on June 3, 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini’s historical life
had ended.
Short biography of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Rouhollah Mousavi Khomeini was born on 24 September 1902 (20 Jamadi al-Akhir 1320), in the small
town of Khomein, the southwest of Qom, the son of Seyed Moustafa. He was the child of a family with a
long tradition of religious scholarship. His ancestors, reached into the descendants of Imam Mousa alKazim, the seventh Imam of the Ahl al-Bayt. Ruhollah began to study the Qur'an and
elementary Persian at the age of six. The following year, he began to attend a local school, where he
learned religion, and other traditional subjects. ). After it he go to the city of Arak in order for him to
benefit from the more ample educational resources available there. In 1923, Khomeini arrived in Qom and
devoted himself to completing the preliminary stage of madreseh education.
Khomeini did not engage in any political activities during the 1930's. He believed that the leadership of
political activities should be in the hands of the foremost religious scholars, and he was therefore obliged
to accept the decision of Ayatollah Haeri to remain relatively passive toward the measures taken by Reza
Shah against the traditions and culture of Islam in Iran. In 1955, a nationwide campaign against the Baha'i
sect was launched, for which the Khomeini sought to recruit Ayatollah Boroujerdi's support, but he had
little success.
Rise of an active leader
The emphases of the Ayatollah Khomeini's activity began to change with the death of Ayatollah Boroujerdi
on March 31, 1961, for he now emerged as one of the successors to Boroujerdi's position of leadership.
This emergence was signaled by the publication of some of his writings on fiqh, most importantly the
basic handbook of religious practice entitled, like others of its genre, Tozih al-Masael. He was soon
accepted as Marja-e Taqlid by a large number of Iranian Shi'is.
In January 1963, the Shah announced the "White Revolution", a six-point programme of reform calling
for land reform, nationalization of the forests, the sale of state-owned enterprises to private interests,
electoral changes to enfranchise women and allow non-Muslims to hold office, profit-sharing in industry,
and a literacy campaign in the nation's schools. Some of these initiatives were regarded as dangerous,
Westernizing trends by traditionalists, especially by the powerful and privileged Shi'a ulama. On 22
January 1963 Khomeini issued a strongly worded declaration denouncing the Shah and his plans.
Khomeini continued his denunciation of the Shah's programmes, issuing a manifesto that bore the
signatures of eight other senior Iranian Shia religious scholars. As a result, Khomeini was arrested and
held in prison. Khomeini was held in prison until April 1964. After delivering another inflammatory speech
in the fall of 1964, Khomeini was arrested and deported to Turkey. But he return from turkey and took up
residence in Najaf, Iraq in September 1965. He remained there for 13 years.
Frameworks of Islamic Revolution Republic.
During his years in exile, Khomeini developed a theory of what a state founded on Islamic principles and
led by the clergy would look like, called Velayat-e faqeeh. He taught his theory at a local Islamic school,
mostly to other Iranians. He also began making videotapes of his sermons, which were smuggled into and
sold in Iranian bazaars. Through these methods, Khomeini became the accepted leader of the Iranian
opposition to the government of the Shah. The opposition was, indeed, picking up steam.
In 1975, crowds gathered for three days at a religious school in Qom and could only be moved by military
force. In response, Khomeini released a jubilant statement in support of the protestors.More protests
occurred in 1978 in Khomeini's defense, and were again put down violently by Iranian government forces.
In the wake of these protests, the Shah felt that Khomeini's exile in Iraq was too nearby for comfort. Soon
thereafter, Khomeini was surrounded by Iraqi soldiers and given a choice: either stay in Iraq and abandon
all political activity, or leave the country.He chose the latter. On October 3, Khomeini moved to Paris. The
year 1979, mere months after his move to Paris Students, the middle-class, self-employed businessmen,
and the military all took to the street in protest. On January 3, 1979, Shapour Bakhtiyar was appointed as
a prime minister by shah. And on January 16, Shah left Iran.
Establishment of new government
Two weeks later, on Thursday, 1 February 1979, Khomeini returned in triumph to Iran. On February 10,
Ayatollah Khomeini ordered that the curfew should be defied. The next day the Supreme Military Council
withdrew its support from Bakhtiyar, and on February 12, 1979, following the sporadic street gunfight all
organs of the regime, political, administrative, and military, finally collapsed. The revolution had
triumphed.
On March 30 and 31, a nationwide referendum resulted in a massive vote in favor of the establishment of
an Islamic Republic. Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed the next day, April 1, 1979, as the "first day of God's
government". He obtained the title of "Imam" (highest religious rank in Shia). With the establishment of
Islamic Republic of Iran he became Supreme Leader (Vali-e Faqeeh). On February 4, 1980, Abolhassan
Banisadr was elected as the first president of Iran.
The Constitution framework
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was adopted by referendum on October 24, 1979, and
went into force on December 3 of that year, replacing the Constitution of 1906. It was amended on July
28, 1989. The constitution has been called a "hybrid" of "theocratic and democratic elements". While
articles One and Two vest sovereignty in God, article six "mandates popular elections for the presidency
and the Majlis, or parliament. However all democratic procedures and rights are subordinate to
the Guardian Council and the Supreme Leader, whose powers are spelled out in constitution.
Relationship with other Islamic nations
Khomeini made efforts to establish unity among Ummah. He intended to reconstruct Muslim unity and
solidarity, so he declared the birth week of Prophet of Islam as the Unity Week. Then he declared the last
Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan as the International Day of Quds in 1979.Shortly before he died
the famous scholar Abul Ala Maududi paid Khomeini the compliment of saying he wished he had
accomplished what Khomeini had, and that he would have like to have been able to visit Iran to see the
revolution for himself.
This pan-Islamism did not extend to the most sunni nations. Under his leadership the Iranian government
cut relation with Saudi Arabia. Khomeini declared that Iran may one day start good diplomatic relation with
the US or Iraq but never with Saudi Arabia. Iran did not re-establish diplomatic relation with Saudi Arabia
until March 1991, after Khomeini's death.
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Persian Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and
Iraq lasting from September 1980 to August 1988.Saddam Hossein, was eager to take advantage of
Iran's weakened military and (what he assumed was) revolutionary chaos, and in particular to occupy
Iran's adjacent oil-rich province of Khuzestan and undermine attempts by Iranian Islamic revolutionaries
to incite the Shi'a majority of his country.
With what many believe was the encouragement of the United States, Saudi Arabia and other countries,
Iraq soon launched a full scale invasion of Iran, starting what would become the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq
War (September 1980 - August 1988). A combination of fierce patriot resistance by Iranians and military
incompetence by Iraqi forces soon stalled the Iraqi advance and by early 1982 Iran regained almost all
the territory lost to the invasion. The invasion rallied Iranians behind the new regime, enhancing Imam
Khomeini's stature and allowed him to consolidate and stabilize his leadership. As the costs of the eightyear war mounted, Imam Khomeini, in his words, "drank the cup of poison" and accepted a truce
mediated by the United Nations. As the war ended, the struggles among the clergy resumed and Imam
Khomeini’s health began to decline.
Khomeini's Political Philosophy
The foundations of Ayatollah Roholla Khomeini's political philosophy are given in the book Hukumat e
Islami: Velayat e Faqih. The essentials may be summarized as follows:
1) Islam is a political religion and philosophy of governance by its nature and covers all aspects of
life.
2) Those who falsely claim that Islam is only relevant to matters of faith do so because they are
servants of imperialists.
3) If Muslim states employed Islamic governance than they would become more powerful than their
rivals, and that is why imperialists and their servants oppose rule by Islamic law.
4) Sharia, as interpreted by a great scholar, must be the basis of governance, and Khomeini is
the marj al taqlid (model worthy of emulation) an absolute leader who rules by fiat and is the
stand-in for the hidden 12th Imam.
5) Democracy is contrary to Islamic law, which is the rule of God. This principle was hidden following
for a brief period just before the triumph of the revolution, when Khomeini promised democratic
government
Teacher’s note points
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Historical study of 19th &20th century Iran
Politics of Iran
Role of ulama in Iran & pahlavids
Emergence of Khomeini
Political scenario of Iran on Khomeini involved
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
Struggle for Islamization in politics
Khomeini and his move
Islamic revolution of Iran
Nature of Islamic Iran
Khomeini and Islamic Iran
Relation of Iran with other countries
Khomeini and his factures
Impact of Khomeini on Muslim world
Iran in the recent polities